Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
today said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is undermining the plan to
computerize the 2010 presidential election by taking a stand that she is in
favor of postponing the August 11,
2008 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

He said Mrs. Arroyo is making a mockery of the law by giving
in to a purported demand of Muslim rebel groups to defer the polls due to
concerns that they may affect the implementation of any peace agreement that
both sides may forge.

Senator Pimentel said the poll postponement that the
administration wanted will put to waste the money, time and energy spent on the
automation of the ARMM elections intended prevent fraud in a region that has
gained notoriety as the country’s cheating capital.

Based on an administration bill that will be filed by
Malacañang’s legislative allies upon the reconvening of Congress next week, the
ARMM elections will be reset and held simultaneously with the May 2010 national
elections.

Mr. Pimentel pointed out that the automation of the ARMM
polls is being pursued in earnest by Congress and the Commission on Elections
to prepare the nation for computerized elections in 2010 and prevent cheaters
from manipulating the political exercise and frustrating the will of the
people.

“But if the ARMM polls this year are shelved, all the
efforts to put in place an automated electoral system, as mandated by law, will
be put to naught. And if that happens, we may as well bid goodbye to the
computerization of the 2010 elections,” he said.

Senator Pimentel, principal author of the ARMM organic act,
also said it is too late in the day to reschedule the elections since Congress
cannot possibly pass the corresponding bill within a period five days of
session before the August 11 polls.

He said that while Malacañang may not be lying by citing the
peace process as the reason for the poll postponement, there is no certainty
whether the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will be able to
conclude a final peace agreement and when that will happen.

“I think that the administration is making a wrong
proposition by citing the peace process as an alibi. What if the peace talks bog
down – as it did many times in the past – and a peace accord is not yet in
sight? How long shall we wait to see a final peace agreement signed?” the
senator from Mindanao said.

Senator Pimentel said President Arroyo, instead of showing a
cavalier attitude towards the holding of the ARMM elections, should be the
first to resist pressures from insurgent forces to do something at the expense
of the political process and the rule of law.

He said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro
National Liberation Front have no business dictating on the government on this
particular issue since in the first place, they have declared that they are
boycotting the ARMM elections. # # #